Laughter, Tears & Screams- Two Aussies in WDW! New - 6/10 - The End!!

[AussieAngel]

Yes, I think I will do a trip report - just gotta finish my dining report first ...
The WL pool was SO great, I loved floating at the end of the pool were the stream flows into it, so relaxing! And one of our favourite things as well, together with the Sea Raycers rental!

Ooh, well let me know when you start your trip report! I'd love to read about your adventures! I'd better go check out your dining report, too!!

 

[AussieAngel]

When I last left off, we had finished our day at Animal Kingdom, and were heading back to the Wilderness Lodge. We planned to grab some lunch and have a bit of a relax before going to Hollywood Studios for our very last night at Disney World! Nooooooo!!!

We arrived back to our room to find another towel animal!! Woohoo!! Look who we got this time...

A little dog! So cute!!

Our animal family joined together for one big group photo! Chip and Dale snuck in there too, the cheeky things...

I don't know what we did this time to get so many towel animals, but we were very lucky! When we stayed at Pop in 2006, we didn't get any!

We wandered down to Roaring Fork to grab some lunch. We weren't very hungry, but thought we'd better use some more food credits! We shared a pepperoni flatbread and a cupcake, which we took back and ate on our balcony. Yum!!

This is the life...

We intended to do some packing that afternoon too, but instead, we went for a lazy wander around the resort to explore one last time. I took some of my favourite photos of our trip then... of Conan slowly wandering down the walkway to the boats. I often try to take photos of him when he doesn't know, but these ones actually worked. I like them! He looks very contemplative! Aww!

It was soon time to hit the road and head to Hollywood Studios for our last night! Which of course, was very sad because it meant our trip was nearly over. Not only was it our last night at Disney, but it was also our last night in America! Boooooo! We'd had such a fun holiday... but exhausting too!! I have to admit, we weren't totally sad. We were also excited to get home and see Annie!!

Here I am at Hollywood Studios... hooraaaay! I like to call this my, "I'm too tired to pose" pose. Hee.

We had an ADR at Mama Melrose to get to, so we headed that way straight away.

Now, I wrote a lot our Mama Melrose adventures that evening in my dining report. I'm going to copy and paste a section from that over to here, since I'll be writing pretty much the exact same thing!! So if you've already read my dining report, you might want to skip the next little bit...

We'd booked the Mama Melrose Fantasmic package for the night, which guaranteed us reserved seats at Fantasmic after our dinner. We were happy we'd done so, since Fantasmic was only on 2 nights a week now. Crazy!

I was looking forward to Mama Melrose - mostly for the Penne ala Vodka! Penne pasta and vodka in the same dish!? That's got my name written all over it!!!

Our ADR was for 4.30pm, and we arrived at Mama Melrose at 4.25pm to check in. Remember that time. It's important!

We checked in and were told to wait in the little check-in area. It was chaos in there. LOTS of people, all trying to check in. It was crowded and there were kids crying and it was noisy and unpleasant! I remember looking at Conan and thinking, "Oh-oh. This might be bad." It just didn't seem a nice, friendly Disney restaurant!

We waited for 15 minutes to be called, which was okay since Fantasmic wasn't until 7pm that night. We still had plenty of time. Right?! Wrong!!

The CM who called our names pulled us aside, looking grumpy. Basically, this was the conversation -

CM: "Because you checked in late, I'm worried you're not going to be able to eat and get to Fantasmic on time."
Us: "Pardon? We checked in 5 minutes early!"
CM: "Our records say you checked in at 4.31pm. You might not have enough time to eat and get to Fantasmic now."
Us: "But it's only 4.40! Fantasmic isn't on until 7pm!"
CM: "But they want you to go there at 5.30, to claim your seat, otherwise they'll give your seat away."
Us: "But we booked the Fantasmic package. Aren't they reserved seats?"
CM: "Not really, no. They only give seats to people who get there early."
Us: "But if an hour isn't enough time to eat and get to Fantasmic on time, why would you allow people to make reservations for 4.30pm?"
CM: "If you were here on time, it would have been okay. But you checked in late."
Us: "We checked in early!!!!!!!!"
CM: "No, you checked in at 4.31pm."

Oohhhhhh, my goodness. Basically we went around and around in circles.

Conan was bamboozled by the whole thing, and I was really cross. We didn't check in late at all. And even if we did check in at 4.31pm, that's ONE MINUTE late!!!! How ridiculous!!

I was really disappointed with the whole thing. For lots of reasons...

1) Why would they allow 4.30pm reservations if an hour wasn't enough time to eat and get to Fantasmic?
2) Why are they called "reserved" seats if they give them away if you don't arrive an hour and a half early?
3) Most importantly, the CM was speaking to us like we were idiots. She made me feel like a naughty 6 year old girl who was telling a lie. Grrrrr.

Anyway, after eventually giving up on trying to convince her that we didn't check in late, she gave us two options - We sit down and eat really quickly, or we go somewhere else.

So we went somewhere else.

I was SO cross. But cross with me doesn't come out as yelling. Cross with me comes out as tears. I had tears in my eyes and I was just floored by this whole thing! So eventually I said, "Fine, we'll leave. Bye." And dragged Conan out with me. Hee. Poor Conan!

We stormed out of stinkin' Mama Melrose and starting walking anywhere but near there. One minute later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the nasty CM!! She had followed us out of the restaurant, because she felt bad! Ha! So she should! She apologised for the confusion and gave us the Fantasmic reserved seating tickets anyway.

Oh. Well that was kind of nice. She was half forgiven. But only half.

Anyway, Conan and I sat down and sorted out what to do. We were stranded in Hollywood Studios with nowhere to eat! This had never happened to me before! I was always so organised with my ADRs! I was in a bit of a fluster, actually. We eventually decided to hang out for a while and do some rides, before going to Fantasmic, then we'd have Room Service from In-Room Dining later, back at our resort. We were pretty much over restaurants by then, and thought another meal on our bed in our pyjamas was just what we needed!

So that was Mama Melrose!! Not quite what we'd hoped for. I never did get to have my Penne ala Vodka!!!

Continued in the next post...

 

[AussieAngel]

So by that stage, it was around 5pm. We wandered over to Tower of Terror to see how long the wait was... but we didn't quite make it! The massive amounts of people streaming into Fantasmic distracted us! Fantasmic didn't start until 7pm - two hours from now... and people were already going inside!! Whaaaat!?

We stopped and had a quick chat to sort out what to do. I'd hoped to do a few more rides, but the lines were massive and we were worried we'd miss out on Fantasmic, so we decided to go inside and find a seat. Sounds crazy, I know, but the seats were three-quarters full already!! We found a great spot in the centre though, where we sat for the next two hours! Waaaah!!

I really, really hate sitting still doing nothing! I don't really know how I did it! We took it in turns to go for little walks to stretch our legs, and we watched the three zillion Brazilian school kids trying to start the wave, and we ate more popcorn, and we had thumb wrestles, and took random photos of ourselves waiting...

...and eventually it was 7 oclock!! Phew!! Time for Fantasmic!!

We both love Fantasmic! It's a bit of a tradition that we watch it on our last night at Disney - well, we've done that the two times we've been there, anyway! This time though, I found it quite scary! It was much darker than I remembered... those Disney baddies are pretty freaky at times!! I'm so glad there's a happy ending! Go Mickey!!

My camera doesn't do too well with night shots, but here's a few of Fantasmic...

Yayyyy, we still love Fantasmic!

Afterwards, we popped into the Villains in Vogue store (thanks Dawn!) to spend some of our leftover snack credits. It was pretty busy in there, but we eventually chose three treats to share...

From left to right - a Smores Fudge thingy, Mickey Gingerbread man, and a Mint Chocolate fudge! YUM!! Delicious!!

With that, we said goodbye to our last Disney park for the last time! Waaaaaahhhh!

We squeezed onto the bus back to the WL, and before going back up to our room, we popped into the WL Mercantile store to use even more of our snack credits. Look at all the stuff we got!!

That's a lot of snacks! We took most of them on the plane the next day - they were great to nibble on every now and then!

We went back to our room after that, and grumbled about all the packing we still had to do. We'd basically done no packing, and things were spread out from one end of our hotel room to the other. Heee. Whoops!! So much do to!!

Instead, we decided to order room service. We hadn't had dinner yet! We both ordered burgers and ate in bed watching tv! Yay! Much more relaxing than Mama Melrose, I'm sure!

And then... the phone rang. Oh-oh!! My immediate thought was, "Oh no! More bad Annie news!" But it wasn't bad Annie news! It was a special phone call from my lovely DIS friend, Trixiequilts!! Yayyyy!! What a nice surprise! She was calling to say hello and to make sure I go down to the front desk, because there was a surprise waiting for me behind the desk. Wow!!

And look what we got!! Some chocolate peanut butter puddles!! Yum!!! Trixie had told me about them before, and I like the sound of them. We don't have anything like it in Australia, so she sent us some!! Isn't she nice?!! It was such a lovely treat for our last night at Disney. We ate most of them that night, and the last couple in the morning, before our flight!! Thank you Trixie!!!

Anywayyy, so the rest of the night was spent packing, packing, packing. We were up until the wee small hours of the morning actually. At about 11pm, while enjoying some wholesome American tv, a newsflash came across the screen - there was a tornado warning for Florida, around the Orlando area! AUghghghghhhghhhgHH!GHHHH!!!

I was ready to run screaming downstairs and ask the front desk where we should hide. Aren't we meant to go in the bathtub or something!? Conan was a bit more calm, and said we should just watch the tv for updates and not panic. But whew! A bit of excitement for our night! Maybe it's a perfectly normal thing to pop up on the screen in Florida. But not for Australians!! We don't have hurricanes or tornadoes or earthquakes or anything, really!

Of course, nothing happened in the end. We just kept on packing and eventually went to bed, safe and sound. Hehehee. Phew!!

So that was our last night!! It pretty much summed up our whole time at Disney really - fun and action-packed, with a few ups and downs thrown in for good measure.

Next up... Leaving day!!!

 

[torsie24]

Aww, sorry the MM CM was so rude!! At least you got your tickets though, and room service burgers sound lush!!

How sad it's almost your last day.

 

[AussieAngel]

Aww, sorry the MM CM was so rude!! At least you got your tickets though, and room service burgers sound lush!!

How sad it's almost your last day.

Oh, I forgot to say! We didn't end up using our reserved seats after all! They were way over to the side of the theater, and we found much better seats in the centre!

So quick with your reply, Torsie!! Thanks!!

 

[torsie24]

Oh, I forgot to say! We didn't end up using our reserved seats after all! They were way over to the side of the theater, and we found much better seats in the centre!

So quick with your reply, Torsie!! Thanks!!

Hee, no problem! You'd think UK/OZ times would mean we're never on at the same times! Turns out not!

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

I'm so sad your report is almost over. I love the photos from Fantasmic. That was really nice of trixiequilts to send those goodies to you.

 

[AussieAngel]

Hee, no problem! You'd think UK/OZ times would mean we're never on at the same times! Turns out not!

I know! Evenings here are mornings there, so it's not too bad really. Plus, I stay up ridiculously late so that helps too!!

I'm so sad your report is almost over. I love the photos from Fantasmic. That was really nice of trixiequilts to send those goodies to you.

I'm a bit sad my report is nearly over too! How did that happen!? Wah! We were very spoilt with the chocolate goodies from Trixiequilts, you're right!!

 

[Worfiedoodles]

I read your dining report, so I wasn't surprised by the Mama Melrose section, but it made me irritated all over again. That is so not magical

I'm really sorry this happened on your last night, but I'm so glad you took the lemons and made lemonade with a great room service meal.

Maria

 

[MagicShell]

I am sad that your trip report is ending. I enjoyed reading along. I can't believe how rude that CM was. I would have had to tell someone about that. It would have made me so mad. I am glad you ended up having a nice evening.

 

[AussieAngel]

I read your dining report, so I wasn't surprised by the Mama Melrose section, but it made me irritated all over again. That is so not magical

I'm really sorry this happened on your last night, but I'm so glad you took the lemons and made lemonade with a great room service meal.

Maria

Aww, thanks! As you said, it turned out to be a good last night night anyway - without Mama Melrose!! We won't go back there again!!

I am sad that your trip report is ending. I enjoyed reading along. I can't believe how rude that CM was. I would have had to tell someone about that. It would have made me so mad. I am glad you ended up having a nice evening.

If it was earlier in our trip, we might have told someone about her... but seeing it was our last night and we just wanted to go watch Fantasmic and head back to the resort, we just let it slide. It was much nicer eating dinner in our pj's in bed, anyway!!

Thanks for reading along!! I'll be back with the next (and last!!) chapter soon!

 

[shebaxric]

Bad, bad CM!! You know, just because the person checking you in didn't enter your check in until 6 minutes after you checked in, it's not your fault!! At least she sort of made up for it, not enough in my opinion! WOW, you sure had an action-packed, fun-filled, if not sometimes crazy trip! You had so many different exeperiences, some of which I'm sure you'll never forget. I look forward to your wrap-up, but am sorry to see the report end.

 

[Krista in MA]

Just found your TR and I must say.... what a great trip you two had! Both of you are so cute together! I love all of the pics included and your writing is fabulous

During this trip you went to 3 of my favorite places.... NYC, Key West, and WDW/UO! I've stayed at the Pod Hotel in NYC and loved it! So very tiny (we stayed in one of their bunk bed rooms) but so modern and clean too! Your NYE sounded great! I didn't realize restaurants did that whole "have a party with us / walk outside for the midnight celebration thing".

If you ever go back to Key West, you two should rent bikes (if you like riding that is ). We rented them for 2 or 3 days and it was so fun and easy.... we rode just about everywhere and had no problem locking them up outside wherever we hung out / ate / and at our hotel overnight.

It sounds like you had a (mostly) magical time at WDW and UO. I don't know about the deluxe dining plan, but with the regular plan, most of the time I never even bothered with dessert.... between my meal, bread they might serve, and taking a bite here and there from someone else's plate.... not enough room for it.

Glad you had such a great time and that Annie is all better

 

[lmillercrew]

So glad that you guys enjoyed your trip. And, like you said, there were some ups and downs, but you were on vacation for a long time. It was bound to have some.
Thank you for letting all of us follow along with you and your DH.

 

[trixiequilts]

I love this photo of Conan, he just looks so relaxed. Did you post this one on your dining report, too? I think I've seen it before. And I really liked the contemplative photos of Conan when he was walking around the resort, too! Not in a weird creeper way or anything...they're just so natural. Hi Conan!

Conan was bamboozled by the whole thing, and I was really cross. We didn't check in late at all. And even if we did check in at 4.31pm, that's ONE MINUTE late!!!! How ridiculous!!

Meanie Mama Melrose. Hearing the story made me mad all over again!

The massive amounts of people streaming into Fantasmic distracted us! Fantasmic didn't start until 7pm - two hours from now... and people were already going inside!! Whaaaat!?

That ridiculous "Fantasmic Twice a Week" schedule was just plain CRAZY!

I really, really hate sitting still doing nothing! I don't really know how I did it! We took it in turns to go for little walks to stretch our legs, and we watched the three zillion Brazilian school kids trying to start the wave, and we ate more popcorn, and we had thumb wrestles, and took random photos of ourselves waiting...

I really meant to call you earlier in the evening, but I decided I didn't want to bother you. Bad decision on my part~we could have chatted for 2 hours while you waited!

You may be exhausted, but you're still photogenic!

It was pretty busy in there, but we eventually chose three treats to share...

...before going back up to our room, we popped into the WL Mercantile store to use even more of our snack credits.

That's a lot of snacks!

Yes, I have impeccable timing. You had just gotten 947 treats!

And then... the phone rang. Oh-oh!! My immediate thought was, "Oh no! More bad Annie news!"

I'm still sorry that my phone call freaked you out like that!

Thank you Trixie!!!

You're welcome AussieAngel!!!

Maybe it's a perfectly normal thing to pop up on the screen in Florida. But not for Australians!! We don't have hurricanes or tornadoes or earthquakes or anything, really!

Just the 10 deadliest animals in the world.

 

[smile4stamps]

Hello!!! I love your TR. I stopped reading before I went on my own WDW trip and have spent the time since getting all my photopass photos ready for the CD. Wow that can take some time!!! Anyways I just read through the last few days of your trip and wanted to share that you aren't the only ones that didn't get through World Showcase. I think we walked through most of it but didn't really explore it all. In fact I think we saw less than half of Epcot total. Too much walking and not enough fun in-between... Hoping to do/see more the next time I convince my hubby into going to WDW.

So sorry your Trip is over as its been great reading about your adventures!

 

[AussieAngel]

Oh-oh! I haven't written my next chapter yet, sorry!! I've been a bit distracted lately with writing student reports for school (bleuughhh!), but I'm nearly done!! In fact, I should be finished writing them by this time tomorrow! Then I'll be straight back here to finish this trip report off!! Thanks for hanging in there, guys!!!

Bad, bad CM!! You know, just because the person checking you in didn't enter your check in until 6 minutes after you checked in, it's not your fault!! At least she sort of made up for it, not enough in my opinion! WOW, you sure had an action-packed, fun-filled, if not sometimes crazy trip! You had so many different exeperiences, some of which I'm sure you'll never forget. I look forward to your wrap-up, but am sorry to see the report end.

I know! Bad CM indeed! Hehee! Oh well... she tried to make up for it, as you said. I just don't understand why they would make ADRs for that time if they know you're not going to make it to Fantasmic in time. But oh well! Thank you for your lovely comments!

Just found your TR and I must say.... what a great trip you two had! Both of you are so cute together! I love all of the pics included and your writing is fabulous

During this trip you went to 3 of my favorite places.... NYC, Key West, and WDW/UO! I've stayed at the Pod Hotel in NYC and loved it! So very tiny (we stayed in one of their bunk bed rooms) but so modern and clean too! Your NYE sounded great! I didn't realize restaurants did that whole "have a party with us / walk outside for the midnight celebration thing".

If you ever go back to Key West, you two should rent bikes (if you like riding that is ). We rented them for 2 or 3 days and it was so fun and easy.... we rode just about everywhere and had no problem locking them up outside wherever we hung out / ate / and at our hotel overnight.

It sounds like you had a (mostly) magical time at WDW and UO. I don't know about the deluxe dining plan, but with the regular plan, most of the time I never even bothered with dessert.... between my meal, bread they might serve, and taking a bite here and there from someone else's plate.... not enough room for it.

Glad you had such a great time and that Annie is all better

Hi Krista!! Thanks for popping in to say hi, and thanks for all your nice comments too! Yay, you stayed at The Pod too!! It's great, isn't it!? Yep, definitely tiny rooms... but I think you expect that when staying in New York! Anything else would seem wrong!

We saw lots of people renting bikes in Key West, and thought about it doing it too... but we were happy walking, really! It looked like fun though! Key West was just so relaxing and fun.

We definitely won't do the Deluxe Dining Plan again!! It was just too much food for us! We got to eat at lots of great restaurants, but next time we'll stick to the regular plan. And as you said, even that is a lot of food!!

So glad that you guys enjoyed your trip. And, like you said, there were some ups and downs, but you were on vacation for a long time. It was bound to have some.
Thank you for letting all of us follow along with you and your DH.

Aww, thanks! And thanks for reading along, too! I'm not quite finished yet though - still have our last Disney morning to write about, and my final wrap-up too! So don't disappear just yet!!

I love this photo of Conan, he just looks so relaxed. Did you post this one on your dining report, too? I think I've seen it before. And I really liked the contemplative photos of Conan when he was walking around the resort, too! Not in a weird creeper way or anything...they're just so natural. Hi Conan!

He does look relaxed, doesn't he!? I think I've posted it on my Facebook page, maybe that's where you saw it!?

Meanie Mama Melrose. Hearing the story made me mad all over again!

Aww, booo Mama Melrose lady. But you had a nice dinner there, which I'm glad about!!

That ridiculous "Fantasmic Twice a Week" schedule was just plain CRAZY!

Wasn't it!? Has it gone back to normal now?! Maybe Mickey needed some time off or something.

I really meant to call you earlier in the evening, but I decided I didn't want to bother you. Bad decision on my part~we could have chatted for 2 hours while you waited!

Bummer!! That would have totally entertained me! Except Conan might have been a bit bored though. Heeee.

You may be exhausted, but you're still photogenic!

Aww, thanks!!

Yes, I have impeccable timing. You had just gotten 947 treats!

We ate yours that night though, and took the rest on the plane with us!!! (Yours were the best, of course!)

Hello!!! I love your TR. I stopped reading before I went on my own WDW trip and have spent the time since getting all my photopass photos ready for the CD. Wow that can take some time!!! Anyways I just read through the last few days of your trip and wanted to share that you aren't the only ones that didn't get through World Showcase. I think we walked through most of it but didn't really explore it all. In fact I think we saw less than half of Epcot total. Too much walking and not enough fun in-between... Hoping to do/see more the next time I convince my hubby into going to WDW.

So sorry your Trip is over as its been great reading about your adventures!

Yay, welcome back!! Making that Photopass CD takes a long time, doesn't it!!? I'm kind of relieved to hear that someone else doesn't love the World Showcase... I thought it was just me! You described it well... "Too much walking and not enough fun in-between." Definitely!
Thanks for reading along!!

 

[Sue88]

Sorry you had a stressful situation at Mama Melrose's! I have a feeling that they had overbooked for dinner and were just trying to blame it on a few customers so that they would get a few people to leave. Certainly not your fault that they were saying that you were one minute late!! Just crazy.

I am from Kansas and that is the capital of tornados! The funny thing is that I have never seen a tornado! My sister lives in Florida and I think she has seen one there. I'm glad that you didn't see the tornado!!

love the report!

 

[Spartangirl]

Just found your report and am sad to see that it is almost over.......but, I'm going back to read from the beginning!!! I read a previous TR of yours and loved it, so I'm excited to catch up on this one!

 

[AussieAngel]

Guess what everybody... I've officially finished my report writing for school! Yayyyyy!!!! I might still have to make a few changes throughout the week after proofreading, etc, but hopefully nothing too major. Such a relief!

Sorry you had a stressful situation at Mama Melrose's! I have a feeling that they had overbooked for dinner and were just trying to blame it on a few customers so that they would get a few people to leave. Certainly not your fault that they were saying that you were one minute late!! Just crazy.

I am from Kansas and that is the capital of tornados! The funny thing is that I have never seen a tornado! My sister lives in Florida and I think she has seen one there. I'm glad that you didn't see the tornado!!

love the report!

Hmm, you may be right about Mama Melrose overbooking dinner!! We were probably the unlucky suckers who got the boot!!
Oooh, Kansas! Yep, that's definitely the capital of tornados... that's where Dorothy and Toto are from!! I'm glad you've never seen a tornado either. Craziness!!

Just found your report and am sad to see that it is almost over.......but, I'm going back to read from the beginning!!! I read a previous TR of yours and loved it, so I'm excited to catch up on this one!

Hey!! I remember reading some of your past trip reports too!! I like your name, Spartangirl... it reminds me of the Saturday Night Live sketch when Will Ferrell is a cheerleader for the Spartans. Hehee!!
Anyway, I'm glad you've jumped on board for the end of my trip report! Thanks for saying hi! Gooooo Spartans!!